F E AT U R E
- T H E S O C I O L O G I C A L I M A G I N AT I O N E X P L O R AT I O N -
PART I:
Vaping Community Responds
to AntiVaping Propaganda
By Anthony J. Ottomanelli II
A
s a sociologist, I am inclined to
stimulate your current ways of
observing our world and offer a
chance to think of this world in
a much different and also very new light.
So, without hesitation, please prolong
your patience, as I attempt to open a
door which invites you inside the realm
of sociological thinking through the
academic discipline which is brightly-lit
by a force of unyielding optimism and
rational logic, the intellectual form of
practical reasoning known as Sociology.
Visualize as you read. Don’t doubt your
own imagination.
Imagine you are floating above Earth,
looking down on the planet and
attempting to observe the distant fuzzy
view of Civilized Society barely in
sight. What else do you think you’d see
besides infrastructure and other random
sections of developed civilization that we
built? As you are floating, you are also
slowly descending back down lower into
the Earth’s atmosphere. Imagine drawing
closer toward the surface of the planet
as you continue to float, yet still you
remain high above the soil of Western
Civilization. As you become near our
socially constructed reality, you are able
to hear everything being discussed and
reported. With the ability to now
imagine more clearly and actually
visualize what could be transpiring from
everything that you’re hearing.
Imagine your vision is now clear and
you can fully observe and analyze how
society functions from simply hovering
up above it.
Hovering above the world, looking down
on it, is surely capable of building a
portrayal of a mindset considered to be
an action taken for the ability to absorb a
developmental imaginative perspective
of Society. This imagination has given
you the ability to view the world,
specifically the Westernized World, as
an outsider. On the outside looking in,
you have an opportunity to develop a
logical foresight for what society truly is
and for what society could become in the
90 ISSUE 03 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE
Imagine you are floating above Earth,
looking down on the planet and attempting
to observe the distant fuzzy view of
Civilized Society barely in sight.What
else do you think you’d see besides
infrastructure and other random sections
of developed civilization that we built?
near future; westernized society, that is.
Once developed, utilizing a Sociological
Imagination gives us the chance
to express an insightful discipline,
measured by a moral compass which is
courageously pointing to the absolute
and utter importance of ethically-charged
social responsibility.
The concept of the Sociological
Imagination was theorized by C. Wright
Mills, in which he defined this particular
mind-set as awareness of the
relationship between an individual and
the wider society. It is based on the
ability to view our own society as an
outsider might, rather than from the
perspective of our limited experiences
and cultural biases ( Sociology in
Modules by Richard T. Schaefer
9:2011). A professor of sociology at
my Alma Mater of DePaul University
writes, “The Sociological Imagination
is an empowering tool. It allows us to
look beyond a limited understanding of
human behavior to see the world and
its people in a new way and through a
broader lens than we might otherwise
use” (Schaefer 5:2011).